When I encode a DVD (NTSC) which is shot and edited in DV, whether it be 25 minutes long using CBR or a 100+minutes long video using VBR; I always get an occasional (up to about 5 total) of what I call pixel “flashes” or “glitter”. These are those shiny one frame flashes of chrome like squares and rectangles that occur in various parts of the picture.

They are not in the original DV footage or edited project, but do show up when I look at the encoded MPEG-2 video file. They often occur in the same spots on a particular video no matter what encoding settings I use.

And are you doing the AVI -> MPEG2 conversion with TMPGEnc? If so, do you see these flashes only when you play the resulting DVD or also when you play the MPEG-2 file on PowerDVD (or some other software DVD player)?

No, AVI->MPEG2 conversion is done by SonicFoundry Vegas-4. After the mpeg2 file is made, I can import it to the Vegas timeline and watch it. And sure enough, the artifacts are in the same spots as on the burned DVD. So the artifacts are being created in the encoding, not the media or burner._________________Thanks,
Charlie

I don't have any experience with Vegas' MPEG-2 encoder, so the only thing I can suggest is that you try a different encoder (ex., TMPGEnc, CinemaCraft, etc.) and see if the problem persists. Maybe someone else here will know more about Vegas' encoder. If you haven't yet, post a message in Sonic Foundry's forums: